Many plants contain commercially valuable juices. For example, many stalks comprise an outer rind component and a soft pithy central component, both of which may contain valuable juices. It has been heretofore proposed to extract juices from such components by techniques involving squeezing and/or soaking of the plant material.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,101,285, issued to the present inventor on July 18, 1978, a series of baskets are mounted in troughs of liquid. A charge of plant material is introduced into each basket and allowed to soak in the liquid for a preset period. Thereafter, the basket is raised from the associated trough and squeezes juice from the charge of plant material, and finally dumps the charge into a succeeding basket where the treatment is repeated.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,693,540 issued to Dombrine on Sept. 26, 1972 plant material is placed within a container, and a cover is secured so as to compress the plant material. The container is then passed through a succession of diffusion stations wherein water is conducted through the compressed plant product.
Notwithstanding the prior art proposals in this area, substantial room for improvement remains. For example, many previous proposals involve equipment which is expansive, requiring a large working area and involving many moving parts that are subject to malfunction.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide novel methods and apparatus for extracting juice from plant materials.
Another object of the invention is to provide novel juice extracting methods and apparatus which effectively combine squeezing and immersion actions.
A further object of the invention is to provide novel juice extracting methods and apparatus which provide for the recovery of pure juice and a secondary recovery of diluted juice.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a simplified, compact juice extracting apparatus which is able to handle relatively high volumes of plant material.